Giant electricity pylons will be erected through the Vale of York despite a seven-year campaign against the scheme.

But today dismayed protesters vowed to fight on for a judicial inquiry.

The £200 million plan will see pylons, the size of Nelson's Column, stretching from Shipton-by-Beningbrough, near York, to the Wilton Power Station at Lackenby in Cleveland.

And long-time pylons opponent Labour MEP David Bowe said he would be seeking urgent talks today with the president of the Board of Trade, Margaret Beckett, while investigating any legal challenge.

Mr Bowe said: "My view is this argument is not over."

He added: "I would have thought Labour would have been taking a much more radical approach to the problem."

Leading campaigners from protest group REVOLT (Rural England Versus Overhead Line Transmissions) plan to hold an emergency meeting next week to decide their next move but today said the battle could go to the High Court.

REVOLT treasurer David Wilkinson, who farms at Pilmoor Grange, Helperby, said: "The power station the line is supposed to serve has been in production for six years without any problems - it's just greed on the part of the National Grid."

And Opposition leader William Hague, whose Richmond constituency will host part of the route, said: "It is not the decision the Labour Party said would be taken when they were in opposition. They have turned round and slapped people in the face.

"They have ignored all the work which showed these pylons were simply not needed and they have well and truly ignored the views of local people."

Villagers, councillors and MPs today spoke of their despair, outrage and disbelief at the go-ahead for the controversial scheme.It follows two public inquiries and a fierce opposition campaign led by the Evening Press and backed by North Yorkshire County Council and Hambleton District Council as well as local MPs.

The only concessions to protesters have been made on environmental grounds - two short sections at Nunthorpe and near Newby, Middlesbrough, will have to be built underground and the route will bypass a site of special scientific interest at East Moor, near Sessay.

Science and Energy Minister John Battle announced the Government's decision in a written answer to a Parliamentary question from Stockton South MP Dari Taylor.

He said: "In coming to her decision, the Secretary of State is satisfied that the technical need for this line has been established. As well as the Inspector's conclusions, and the opinions of interested parties, she has had regard to the views of the Director General of Electricity Supply on system planning standards and his concern that the current supply system in the North East of England does not meet the required standard and that a long term solution is required."

However opponents today reiterated their long-held view that the new line was unwarranted.

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh today called on the Government to reopen the inquiry into the scheme.

She said the pylons were totally unnecessary and the decision showed the Government's "contempt for the countryside".She said: "The bottom line is there is no need for this line of electricity to be built."

Ryedale MP John Greenway, who had been pressing for a third inquiry into the pylons, said: "It is a betrayal of the community of North Yorkshire. The National Grid Company failed to make a case as why this line was necessary, yet it appears to be what the Minister has accepted."

Coun Peter Sowray, chairman of North Yorkshire County Council's planning committee, said the pylons would "blight the Vale of York".

He said: "The pylons will be the size of the Nelson's Column and will be visible for miles."

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